Sunday, January 02, 2005
Stop Labeling Books Before You Read Them. Or At Least Not Before They Are Even Released.
Christine Todd Whitman is a former New Jersey governor. She also was the person Bush first appointed to head the Environmental Protection Agency. She has now written a book called It's My Party Too: Taking Back the Republican Party - and Bringing the Country Together Again. I have seen this book characterized on several websites as “another Bush bashing book”. The clever alliteration aside, this is a completely useless statement, and in this case not correct. At least it’s incorrect as I can tell so far.
The basic premise of the book is this:
Whitman gives the reader an inside prospective on how the Republican party has been “hijacked” by “social fundamentalists”, right-wing extremists, etc. She explains why this is a bad thing for the party and that to retain its power and legitimacy it must make genuinely reach more to the middle.
That doesn’t sound much like Bush bashing to me. Sure, she takes some swipes at the administration for being too far right and catering to fundamentalists and extremists. But again, that’s not bashing. She’s just telling like it is. Now, as I’ve chided, I too will delay final judgment until I can see the book. My point is simply that it’s sad that anyone who even lightly criticizes the current administration is always labeled a “Bush Basher” at best and traitorous or un-American at worst. It’s a sad state.
|
Christine Todd Whitman is a former New Jersey governor. She also was the person Bush first appointed to head the Environmental Protection Agency. She has now written a book called It's My Party Too: Taking Back the Republican Party - and Bringing the Country Together Again. I have seen this book characterized on several websites as “another Bush bashing book”. The clever alliteration aside, this is a completely useless statement, and in this case not correct. At least it’s incorrect as I can tell so far.
The basic premise of the book is this:
Whitman gives the reader an inside prospective on how the Republican party has been “hijacked” by “social fundamentalists”, right-wing extremists, etc. She explains why this is a bad thing for the party and that to retain its power and legitimacy it must make genuinely reach more to the middle.
That doesn’t sound much like Bush bashing to me. Sure, she takes some swipes at the administration for being too far right and catering to fundamentalists and extremists. But again, that’s not bashing. She’s just telling like it is. Now, as I’ve chided, I too will delay final judgment until I can see the book. My point is simply that it’s sad that anyone who even lightly criticizes the current administration is always labeled a “Bush Basher” at best and traitorous or un-American at worst. It’s a sad state.
|
Comments:
Post a Comment
